“To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed,
law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at,
controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by
creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do
so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction
noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered,
assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden,
reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility,
and in the name of the general interest, to be place under contribution,
drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed,
hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of
complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down,
abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned,
shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked,
ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is
its justice; that is its morality."
General Idea of the Revolution in
the Nineteenth Century, translated by John Beverly Robinson (London:
Freedom Press, 1923), pp. 293-294.”
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
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